A Game Worth Playing
by JustAnotherObsession94
Summary: When The Doctor and his companions arrive in an impossible place, what seems to be a strange yet happy reunion becomes a dangerous game. But who is forcing them to play? Features Nine, TenToo, and Eleven as well as Amy, Rory, Rose and more.
1. An Uncanny Introduction

**Chapter 1: An Uncanny Introduction**

"Amy! Quick, grab that control! Rory, grab that thing there! Something is pulling the TARDIS and I don't know why…or where. Or when, really! Hold on tight, I've got a feeling this is gonna be a bumpy ride."

The words had barely left the Doctor's lips when a sudden jolt had him on his backside, lying flat on the durable glass floor. "Like I said, bumpy ride."

"Yeah, no kidding," Amy shot back, falling into her fiancé's less than stable arms. "Doctor, what's happening?"

"I don't know…but my guess is that we're about to find out." The TARDIS wretched once more before coming to a final stop. "Shall we?" He gestured to the door in anticipating curiosity.

"Yeah, what other choice is there, right?"

"Right! Come along, Pond, Rory." The Doctor lead the way out of the TARDIS and into, what appeared to be, nothing.

"Well it's not Rio. Again."

"No, this is…this is impossible! Something like this can't exist!" The Doctor twirled into the white space, holding out his arms in wonder.

"What is?" Rory asked, looking around in confusion. "What's impossible?"

"If I'm not terribly mistaken, we have been pulled so far into the time vortex that there is nothing here," The Doctor ran back to the TARDIS. "You, you did this! Clever thing, you! But why? Why would you bring us here? It must have been you, Sexy, no one else has this sort of power over the vortex."

A hole appeared just between the Doctor and his companions. He knelt down and probed the one dark space in the otherwise completely white area with his sonic screwdriver.

"She wants us to go there. It's safe…I think. I'll go first, Rory then you. Amy, jump in after, okay?" The Doctor leaped into the hole with a shout of "Geronimooooo!"

As the Doctor hit solid ground, the darkness around him was broken by a gradual succession of flood lights lining the walls, all steep and white and crawling endlessly up, stretching an impossible length of emptiness save the lamps and one solitary splotch of a figure down the left wall.

"Ah, fantastic! It's about time someone turned up! Been waitin long enough." The shape revealed a man in a black leather jumper sitting crisscrossed in a plain chair under one of the lights, grinning up at the bow-tied bloke, who blinked once, hand raised and paralyzed in question, then dropped it to the side, mouth opened, closed.

"Excuse me, but um…you-you're _m_e."

The other doctor just grinned wider and nodded. "Yeah, seems to be. And you are _m_e."

Thud. Thud. Amy and Rory landed in the corridor.

"Doctor?"

"Yeah?"

"That's me."

The two Doctors replied simultaneously, the ninth incarnation looking rather pleased by the unforeseen circumstances. "So these are my future companions, huh? Great to meet you two, I'm the Doctor!" he greeted, all combat ready and easy smile.

"What? But, he's the Doctor! How can you be him and him be him? Isn't there something about your own timeline or something?" Amy asked, obviously perplexed.

"Yep. Sure is, but not here and we don't know why."

"Exactly completely very what he said. This should be impossible and it's absolutely wrong. But we're here and not dreaming, I don't think, so it's happening. But how?! Yes, how and why? Why us and why now? How now brown cow…no, sorry, what was I saying, yes, this makes no sense. Less sense than me right now and that _is_ saying something." The current doctor rambled, tapping his chin, lips pursed, glancing over to the thoroughly confused couple just before another voice broke the barrier.

"—No! I said DO press that-no, not –why does no one ever listen to me-oof!" Another window split the stillness, a black flash of empty anything giving way to an elbow, then an arm, then two bodies falling down and sideways suspended through the rift- a gangly man in a brown stripped suit and a blonde girl tumbling after. "Waitwaitwait, that doesn't make any sense-we were falling _down_, proper gravity plummeting us to our deaths, and nowww-oh!" head tilting back to see four faces inverted "Hullo!" a charmed smile before clamoring to rubber soles under red canvas, tugging the girl to her feet beside him. "I'm the Doct-no…wait, what? _Wha_t? What th'ell is going on here-why are _you_ here?" gesturing at his previous incarnation, adjusting black spectacles and looking the other three over again. "_What?"_

"Hallo me, meet the new you!" The Doctor in black said to the newest arrival, jerking his thumb towards the Time Lord in the bow-tie. "Good to see you again, Rose!"

The blonde skipped over to the older man, "Doctor!" she exclaimed, jumping into a welcoming embrace. "Oh, I've missed you!"

"Have you now? At least you've got him," he said, pointing to the next Doctor, "I've been here since regeneration. Just waiting. But waiting for what, I think now's the time I find out." Rose's first Doctor released her and turned to examine his next form. "Oh now that was a good one. Look at that hair!"

"Well mine's good too! Right?" The Doctor with the bow tie interrupted with a puppy-like grin as he sought the approval of his previous regenerations. "Hello, who are you, lovely girl?"

"What?" Rose's brow furrowed in disbelief. "Why don't you know who I am? You have the same memories, don't you? If you're him, really the Doctor…"

The redhead butted in, "Oh, he _is _the Doctor. Absolutely. Don't know about those two though," she pointed at the two others with a scoff.

"No, no, no, it's exactly the opposite. Where was this Doctor of yours when the Daleks were invading Earth and the walls between the parallel worlds were breaking down? Or when Gallifrey tried to come back?" The Bad Wolf turned to the Doctor she wouldn't recognize, this was his question to answer now. "Do you remember any of that?"

"I-I don't know. Yeah, I know I should but I can't. There's something in the way, I can feel it. I'm supposed to know you and all of that but I don't."

The one with the black rimmed glasses chimed in, "It's this place. It's got to be. It's separating me, and you, and you. I am completely me, the tenth regeneration and the meta-crisis, and you are completely and purely you, both of you. When we were transported here something happened to distinguish us from each other, literally splitting us into different people. It's not good. No, this isn't supposed to happen, ever. It's impossible."

"Precisely." The darkest clad man asserted. "But it is happening, so what for?"

"More importantly, what the hell is _that_?" The spectacled one walked over to the newest manifestation and grabbed the bright red bowtie , inspecting it. "That's next? Really? We look like someone's grandfather!"

"What? Hey," he swatted his hand away, grinning. "Bowties are cool."

"Mm. Right." He pushed a hand back through spiked brown hair, clearing his throat. "Yeah, there's a word for it…anyway, right wonky bit in the space time continuum, blending up our timeline, all that lovely stuff. Any ideas?" raising an eyebrow, looking to the other two geniuses in the room.

"Yeah, over here-" Rory raised a hand, head titled. "Uhm, if you're all…him, do we just call you all 'The Doctor', or…? It's just a bit confusing."

"Nah, I'm good." The seated man leaned forward, fingers steepled. "Doctor, Doctor, Doctor." Nodding to each one and slipping into a wide grin.

The companion opened his mouth again, closed it. "That…actually isn't helping."

"How bout we just call 'em by numbers?" Rose suggested from beside the chair. "You're the ninth regeneration, right? So you're nine, the ninth Doctor, whatever, he's tenth, and I'm guessing _that_ is the eleventh. So there we are, Nine, Ten, and Eleven."

The redhead nodded in approval, "Yeah, I suppose that works. Gives us a way to keep our boys straight anyway."

"Our, _our_ boys?" Rose questioned. "Sorry, but who exactly are you anyway?"

"Me? I'm Amy Pond. The girl who waited and the one he trusts. And better yet I don't have to be his hussy to prove it!"

Nine and Ten both stood at that, going to Rose's defense, she held up a hand, stopping them.

"Excuse you," she snapped, "what exactly do you think this is?" Rose held up her left hand for the fiery girl to inspect. "I'm his fiancée."

"What?" Amy, Nine, and Eleven all shouted, taken aback for various reasons at various levels of surprise.

"I'll explain later, first," she turned on the Eleventh. "Does that mean you forget? Does'at mean you forget about me, or is it more of a casual movin' on?"

"Rose—" the Tenth took a step towards her, and she held up a finger.

"Hold up you, I'm talking." Turning back to the Eleventh, arms folded. "So?"

He smiled softly, something alight in his eyes. "Nothing's ever _truly_ forgotten, Rose Tyler." Syllables suspended a spark against the silence. Ten's hand found hers and she looked down, back up. "But some things have a place, and some things have a time."

"Right," she nodded with a sad grin, realizing that he did still know her, "it's just really, really deep down, those memories."

"Exactly. Too deep, really," Ten interjected, "Rose you are so so important that it shouldn't be taking that much effort for him to remember you. Something is wrong, very wrong."

"Yeah, I think I would remember my own wedding, Why can't I remember that?"

"Well, that's because it didn't _actually_ happen to you. I'm the Doctor, but I'm a meta-crisis." He explained, beginning to pace a circle. " See, I came out of the Doctor, took a in a touch'a sassy earth-girl DNA, and bingo- here I am. Half human, half Timelord." He paused, swinging his shoulders into a stop, hands in pockets. "And, living the life neither of you could ever live, settled, more or less, and with only one go left." Words unraveling in endsong. "But-that still doesn't explain _you_ does it?!" sparking back, kinetic, jumping back over to Nine, resting his elbows on the top of the chair. "_You're_ gone. So, we could be what, hmm, past present future? Well, I'm definitely a present, buuuut, I think it's a _tad_ more complicated then all that. Three divisions of one fixed event—"

"—separated by some external manipulation, shouldn't be able to exist in the same moment as one another—"

"-_unless_ we are existing in three separate yet perfectly overlapping strands. Or, what even about this bit? This doesn't even seem to be a real place, but of course it's a place, because we're in it-a perfectly place-like place. Actually, more like a holding area—"

"A place mark, a blip, a hole in the fabric of the universe. A suburb of the Void perhaps?" Nine looked up at Ten, then over at Eleven. "They say the Void's the afterlife, Hell, if you favor-which might explain why I'm bopping around back here—but if it is an overlap-"

"Then what happens if I do _this_?" Ten quirked an eyebrow, glanced around the room, then placed his hands on Nine's shoulders.


	2. Toxins and Reapers

**Chapter 2: Toxins and Reapers**

Six pairs of eyes snapped and stuttered open on the cohesion of a gasp, blurred sky and floral trees.

"Awright, um, _what_?" Rory asked, sitting up, rubbing his head from where it collided with a root.

"Ah.." Ten sat up, cracking his neck, and put his glasses back in his pocket. "When I touched him," nodding towards Nine, "It caused a collision of impossible matter, all those atoms that shouldn't exist bing together, and, here we are."

"Yeah, sure. Which is where?"

The hybrid grinned. "No idea! Coulda right blown us up, but hey, at least it's different. Rose? You alright?" he asked, sitting up, catching her eye in the misty half-light.

"Yep, all good here…wherever that is. Looks like what, some kind o'forest?" she mused, letting Nine help her up, taking in the pale grey trunks of smooth bark swathed in a foliage of flowers, fuchsia garlands of moss whispering along the root cracked and rocky ground.

"Wait a minute," Nine said, taking in the new scene of rouge hues and everlasting canopies. "I know this place, this is the Forest of Sight from-"

"Gallifrey," Ten finished, astounded, something frigid edging in beneath the shiver of skin. "But _why_? Why here, why now?" bitter question seethed through grit teeth.

"Well, none of this should be able to exist, so it makes perfect sense for us to be in an impossible place," Eleven remarked.

"So if this is part of your home planet, what is it doing here?" Amy asked.

"Something extremely very not good," her Doctor replied, "but I'm thinking that it's here because it's here," he pointed to his head, "and there, and there," he continued, pointing to his two previous regenerations respectively.

"What about that?" Rory noticed a mist seeping out of the flowers, blossoms dripping with an opaque, swirling substance, evaporating into miasmic motion as it touched the air, an amber iridescence clouding the substance opaline.

"An opiate fed to the oracles—forces their minds open. They're exposed to it in small doses through the ages until they can stand to breathe it in all at once. Supposed to help them have visions, but it's very very dangerous if you're in it too long, hell, it could even kill after a bit." Nine explained in a wary efficiency, backing away, eyes trained on the tree in front of him before glancing back. "So, I'd suggest everybody run!"

"Oh yes, children are taken and steeped in the poison until they're finally mad," he nearly tripped over a root, "-mad enough to qualify without being killed. Unfiltered straight from the forest, it's enough information to incinerate every synapse in a Timelord's brain—that's why it'll usually shut itself off before-"

"Before what?" Rose asked, glancing back at her fiancé, feeling his hand clench in hers, words trailing into nonsense as he swayed and dropped stone still to the forest floor, nearly dragging her with him, warning clenched between his teeth.

"Before this," Nine clarified just before he followed suit and crashed shoulder first skidding into the dirt.

"Okay everyone, this is extremely, important," the remaining Timelord waved a finger, "you have absolutely got to…" his voice trailed off.

"Got to what?"

"Amy, he's gone too." Rose called from Ten's side as the last thudded face into a tree trunk, falling onto his back. "But we can't just leave them here."

"Oh God, are they dead? Didn't he say it could kill them?" Amy clasped a hand to her mouth and fell to her knees. "No, they can't be. They can't."

"Don't worry, they aren't," Rory checked Eleven's vitals, then Ten and Nine's. "They're just unconscious, but we need to get them out of here fast, they're fading."

A grating screech sounded from above the canopy, followed by a violent rustling in the leaves.

"Great, what the hell is that now!?" Rory asked in a voice caught between fear and exasperation.

"Reapers!" Rose shouted as a triple set of talons shredded through the trees. "We've got to get out, now!"

"Yeah, you got any ideas on how we're gonna do that?" Amy snarled, shaking her Doctor's shoulders. "_Doctor!_ This is not the time to take a nap, yeh right stupid git!"

Rose looked around fervently for some kind of…anything. "Actually, yes. Look, that tree there-the big, hollowed out one-" she clamored over to the trunk, palms braced against the bark, poking her head inside. "Yes! Here-it's dark, but seems to be some sorta opening, a hole—"

"And if gas rises we need to go down, so hopefully that's the way," Rory began dragging Nine towards the tree.

The Reapers appeared below the thick branches of beauty and poison, gaining on the group as they struggled to get the Doctors into the hollowed trunk.

"Damn, these are some heavy blokes," Amy grunted, tugging Eleven inch by inch.

"I'd say it's the extra heart, but he ain't got one and he's still heavy," Rose pulled Ten over roots and through a small patch of thorns, "I'm sorry, so sorry," she grimaced for him just before a sudden screech tore reverberations down her spine, the leathery flap of wings obscuring her vision as it descended, charging the red head ahead of her.

"Amy-_!"_

"_Get the hell away from my wife!"_ Rory shouted as he swung a hefty fallen branch into the creature's abdomen, cargo forsaken, eyes wide and palms heavy, slamming the Reaper soaring farther back into the air with a scream of pain and such terrible rage.

"Oh, goddammit why d'you have to be so damn brave you big idiot!" Amy berated over his shoulder as he looked down frantically at the branch now snapped in his hand, fear dilating the reflection of the beast, arm raising in futile protection as it's jaws unhinged-

-and a golden bolt of light burst into its chest, exorcising it's shape to ashes, glowing from the blonde girl's splayed skeleton, palm outstretched, eyes on fire.

"Come _on!_" she ordered all urgency, the turn of her head revealing eyes back to hazel, unaffected, the only expression annoyance at her comrades all agape.

"Any ideas how far down this goooooooes-?!" Rory's voice fell into echoes as he tumbled down the rabbit hole, Nine tugged unceremoniously after.

"None- be careful!" Rose called, following with her Doctor, Amy went last, shoving in Eleven just as a second monster raced for him.

"Oh not now you don't!" the redhead shouted, boot colliding with its forehead, forcing it away as the momentum sent her following backwards down into the darkness.


	3. Leap of Faith

**Chapter 3: Leap of Faith**

The six landed with a residual bounce in some sort of giant net, just a few feet above solid ground. The underground cavern was dimly lit from the little bit of light that crept through the hole, hardly enough to distinguish anything except each other's silhouette.

"Everyone alright?" Rose's voice filtered over tentatively, squinting in the half sight.

The upright suggestion of red hair over white face. "Yeah, totally completely _charmed_ over 'ere. Lovely bit o' vacation going for me." Amy scoffed, checking over Rory, Eleven. "By the way, you wanna tell us exactly what the _hell_ that was that happened up there?" she demanded in the chrysalis of a question, remembering the light and the fire whispering mystery across the other girl's skin.

"Right. Those where Reapers," she responded, biting back insult with a click of her tongue. "Monsters, well, aliens charged to eat up th'evidence of events damaging to an established timeline."

"Great bit of encyclopedia, but that's not what I was asking-oh!"

Both girls jumped as the Tenth Doctor sat up suddenly between them, gasping. "Ahh, well that was rude—" he took a sharp inhale, shook his head, blinked. "But, all good now. Everyone alright?"

"Somethin' like that." Rose offered over his shoulder, hugging him tight all tension and relief, nearly knocking the hybrid back over as he returned it, always happy to see her smile.

"How're you up?" Rory asked, checking the other twos' vitals. "They still seem out pretty cold."

"I'm a half now, so my system can handle it after immediate distance from the fog itself." He grinned, head lolling to look back over at him in the darkness, beating a fist against his monocardial chest. "Good ol' human immunities!"

The Doctor pulled black rimmed glasses from his coat and slid them up the bridge of his nose. Squinting and checking the area he opened his mouth to talk-

"Why do you even have those?" The redhead wrecked his train of thought. "It's not like you can see anything in here anyway."

Ten regarded the girl disapprovingly. "Well they aren't as useless as a bow tie. Besides, they accentuate my brilliance. People seem to listen better when I wear 'em, so how bout you shuddup and not break the trend? Much better. Now listen, I'm going to talk 'til I figure something out."

"Fine, since you asked nicely," Amy shot, "and bow ties are cool."

"Yeah, says him. A-nywayyy, we're on a big net, it seems. Not a creature's web, not sticky enough, and no one constructs a net outta rope in this clean a formation on accident, _so,_ that tells us that one, something is behind all this, and two, they don't want us dead quite yet-otherwise they could've chanced havin' us survive the fall. An', I don't know about you, but I think nets look an awful lot like cages, just without the sides, making this a trap—well, that was obvious the second we all met up in that room."

"Okay," the blonde started, "but who would be doing this, and how? It doesn't make any sense."

At that moment, the two Timelords jolted up and a familiar, childish tune seemed to blast out of the area itself. Bulbous colored lights illuminated a circumference of canvas walls and high ceiling, pitched at a point in the center and tapering out. A network of tight ropes and trapeze lifts cluttered the air above.

"This is new, isn't it? I'd say so by you lots' puzzled looks," Eleven mused.

Nine stepped in, shaking his head to clear it of the remnants of the toxic particles. "Our coming to must have activated it somehow, that or someone's watching us very closely and manipulating our scenery. Perhaps both. But this is a-"

"A carnival!" Eleven continued, "Cool," he said, nodding to himself. "This is going to be extremely fun! Oh, and oh so extremely dangerous." He sounded off with a yell of "Geronimo!" as he stood, wobbled on the net's edge, and fell over. Caught in the underside of the rope-work, he hung suspended meters above a huge, elaborate merry-go-round, spinning at an exponentially increasing rate. "Okay, be careful not to get stuck in the net. It's probably not the best place to be," he warned the others. "Ooh, look at those," he called, noticing something more to the carousel. "These horses aren't horses! Their unicorns! Great spiky impaling unicorns…of death! Let's not get snagged by summa those…"

The others shared glances of horror as they realized that what the Eleventh said was all too true. If the fall they would all have to make wasn't bad enough, landing just a little too late or a little too early would mean being stabbed through by one of the iron stakes.

"Okay, we're going to have to time this right, each of us," Rose called over the whirring of the carousel and the repetitive music. She crawled over to the edge of the net and grabbed on to the bottom, flipping herself over to join Eleven, only right-side up. "I've got the bronze," she muttered, bracing herself for the fall. Landing side-saddle on one of the padded satin saddles of the wood carved horses, she gave a triumphant "Ha!" She called the others, "hurry before it speeds up even more!" She rubbed her bottom, "And don't be scared of a little bruising!"

Eleven swung to and fro, arms reaching above his head, feet still caught in the net. The swinging became more and more fervent until he freed his feet, resulting in nervous shouts from those still atop the giant hammock. Rotating with a mid-air flip, he stuck a perfect landing- standing atop the rear of one of the horses. "Exhilarating, really, you should all try it!" Stumbling a bit on the smooth surface, arms spread to his sides like some mad tap dancer. "Unless you're prone to heart attacks, nausea, or pregnancy. Oh Amy, be careful!"

"I've got her, Doctor," Rory called, grabbing his wife in his arms and falling back first, eyes screwed shut, the colorful curses of his spouse lost to gravity as they landed miraculously on the one carriage type cart, Amy safe on top of him.

"You next," Nine gestured to Ten, "don't get impaled," he grinned in foreboding optimism.

"Course not. Allons-y!" The lanky Doctor called, plummeting towards the others feet first and legs spread. He gasped on contact, hunched over, having fallen between the saddle and the horse's neck in a rather unfortunate position.

"You alright?" Rose called from a couple rows behind.

"Oh yes," the words came out breathless through clenched teeth, "I believe…the probability of us having any kids…may've decreased a bit more, but yeah-I'll be fine."

"Now I'll try not to do that," Nine remarked with his trademark grin, a guard against his rising nerves. The carousel had begun spinning at an impossible speed- there was nothing to distinguish saddle from iron horn. His jump would really only be a shot in the dark, a leap of faith.

The Doctor jumped, straight legged and with a whisper of a prayer to no one in particular on his lips. Speedblind, the prayer mutated into a sharp syllable of pain compressed, one of the spikes tearing through the leather of his jumper and scraping along left of his spine, a shallow desecration down latissimus dorsi. He crumpled in front of the pseudo-wooden steed, breathing in raggedly to put the pain behind him on the exhale, eyes forced closed.

"_Doctor!"_ Rose was off her saddle, palms plastered to the resin and stain of the wooden lacquered flooring, body braced against gravity, tugging herself by horse hooves to the fallen man. "Doctor," she whispered in horror, gripping leather, fighting to tug away the tattered fabric, hand ghosting across his cheekbone, folding into his palm. Barely audible, he muttered the floral name into a wince.

"Rose, let me have a look, I'm a Doctor, a proper medical Doctor," Rory kneeled by the shuddering man as Rose shifted out of his way, holding the slashed dark leather tight to her chest.

"Nurse, Rory, no need to impersonate a professional," Amy called from behind, tearing her husband back to reality.

"Okay fine, but I'm more medically trained than any of _those_ Doctors, and right now probably the best candidate to help him." Rory looked around frantically, realizing he was medically unarmed. "We have to get down. I can't do anything on top of this deathtrap!"

"Great, I'm guessing that means more jumping, am I right?" Amy asked bitterly, a concerned hand on her stomach.

"I know, I'm sorry, we don't have a choice. This thing is only getting faster and I really don't want to know what happens when it reaches its limit" Rory's despair was apparent in his eyes as he begged his three-months pregnant wife to make another most likely safety-compromising leap.

"Oh, yup, more jumping—ahh—that should be loads of fun…" the wounded Doctor grimaced, shifting, gently swatting away the human man's hand reaching to steady. "Don't, I've got it," he grabbed onto the neck of the nearest mechanical creature for the most minimal, subtle, support he could manage, suppressing his weakness. Once at the edge, he let himself fall forward, pulled out by the g-force. "I'm fine," he called from outside the blurring stampede. "Just get off!"

One by one, the others made their way off of the haywire carousel, Eleven bringing up the rear. As he leapt off, the contraption began whirring louder and louder, metal grating against wood, reverberating through the area with a nails on the chalkboard effect. Spark smell struck the air as the metallic cogs and wheels ignited the wooden hosts.

"She's gonna blow! Quick, through that opening!" Ten waved everyone towards a seam in the canvas, a soft white light beckoning them in. Nine surrendered to the slight help of his closest future self, hobbling swiftly, well, as swiftly as a hobble will allow, along behind the others into yet another unknown. Deep in the writhing shadows of the flames, barely out of reach of the wreckage, a shattered silhouette was left in the afterglow, black shape and shackles dragging the dirt, spine tense and all hands and knees, a stoop faltering into the forgery of footsteps, a figure trembling all stained in white haunting the outskirts unheeded.


	4. Blast From The Past

**Chapter 4: Blast from the Past**

A crescendo of the carnival music lead the group to a room not unlike the space they most recently occupied. The same canvas walls ensnared them, same ceiling overhead, splattered with trapeze lifts and ropes. They entered onto a stage of sorts, cluttered with strange circus paraphernalia. Center-stage, a young boy sat on a ring leader's pedestal, calmly awaiting…something. The boy turned, facing front in a crisp 1940's school uniform.

Wide-eyed, Rose beckoned her wounded Doctor to the edge of the group, needing his confirmation before she could let herself believe.

"Is that, it can't be, can it?" She asked, knowing his answer before he gave it.

"'Course it can, dunno how, or why, but if I can be here there's nothin' to say he- or anybody else- couldn't," his voice a collection of calm knowledge and ageless wonder, chased with a spreading pain and a widening stain- deep red liquid on olive green fabric.

The little blonde boy stood, taking a step towards the group. "You helped me, now I can help you," fireflies of energy appeared around him, circling, circling, moths to the light when they themselves are the flame.

"It's the nanogenes!" Rose exclaimed, remembering how the little creatures restored all those people back in the 1940s. "But, is it safe? Should we trust him, Doctor?" She muttered, stepping protectively in front of the staggering man.

"Well," the tenth stepped in, "I suppose we've got to. He's dying, Rose," voice turned somber, "that's no ordinary gash, and I don't know how time progression works here, but it's quite possible that if he dies…I'll never have lived. You either," he nodded at the eleventh. "We haven't got a choice."

"Nice to know the next me is so optimistic, yeah?" Grin turned grimace, doubled over in rising agony.

"Oh, God," Rose faltered, blinked, and with a shake of her head and a deep breath, she found renewed bravery. "Alright, Jamie, how 'bout a hug for your ol' Doctor? It'll do him some good, don't ya think?"

The boy skipped over to the kneeling man, landing into a gentle yet so deprived paternal embrace. Five pairs of eyes stood in suspense, without breath or blink. The nanogenes circled and circled, learning and distinguishing until the glow radiated around the Doctor's wound, golden ripples absorbing the half-dry, half-flowing red.

The ninth doctor rose with a grin, "I feel fantastic! Thank you Jamie!" Arms tight around dangling legs, the doctor spun the boy around in his bout of relief.

"Good," the boy smiled sheepishly, "then you'll be okay for what comes next!"

Relief turned to worry as his kind words promised yet another danger.

The ground began to rumble as the area contorted, the circus ring morphing into something much more elaborate.

"Whoah!" Nine nearly fell over as the ground directly under his feet ascended, a platform, taking him up and up until he nearly reached the top of the high pitched ceiling. A slab of wood erected behind Rory, thick restraints immediately binding him as Amy stumbled through the shaking, a box full of shimmering points appearing beside her, unnoticed. Creaking planks and shouts of protest, Rose fell away from her human doctor, trapped under a slew of wood beams and string lights. Four thick walls of glass trapped Ten, an insect stuck in a child's jar, another piece closed off the top, sealing him away from the others. Bars like a cell sprang up around Eleven, enclosing him in a circular prison on the edge of the ring. Something thin and leather materialized in his hand as the floor opened and lifted, stopping only when he was eye to eye with a gargantuan white tiger, promptly roaring and baring its stalactite teeth.

The room's rampage finally died down to an anticipating silence as each pawn came to terms with their respective obstacles.

The boy stood undisturbed at the center of the ring. Megaphone voice, all attention on him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the show!" He bowed to the impossible audience, applause welcoming his introduction. A stage light illuminated what could only be marionettes of living plastic. Wax skin, dead eyes. The young announcer turned back to the stage. "It's your job to entertain the lovely audience, they came all this way just for you, after all," he called through an audible grin. "Each of you will find that there is some obstacle you must overcome. When I say so, you will have fifteen minutes to complete your task. If you do not succeed before then, you will die." The boy sat, nonchalant, "Good luck!"


End file.
